Multiple-zero escapement mechanism.



THIEME.

MULTIPLE ZERO ESCAPEMENT MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED JULY n. 1912.

1,143,240. Patented June 15, 1915.

7 SHEETSSHEET I.

Fig./

Witnesses Q In venior Q a Thieme v J Wuj/ n t/w fl g/ O. THIEME,

MULTIPLE ZERO ESCAPEMENT MECHANISM,

APPLICATION FILED JULY II, 1912. 1,143,240.

Patented June 15, 1915.

V. Wm 2 'm-w m eh w WTW .[0 ow M 5 w v 11.. WJ

Wiinesses O. THIEME.

MULTIPLE ZERO ESCAPEMENT MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED JULY III 1912.

Patented June 15, 1915.

7 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

S i a; w

Inveniar 01320 Thieme 0. THIEME.

MULTIPLE ZERO ESCAPEMENT MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED JULY II. 1312. 1,143,240. Patented June 15, 1915.

7 SHEETSSHEET 4- Invenlor 0H0 Thieme Wilneases (Emmi/ y O. THiEME.

MULTIPLE ZERO ESCAPEMENT MECHANISM.

APPLICATION HL'ED JULY H, H2, 1,143,240. Patented J une 15, 1915.

I SHEETS-SHEET 5.

Wiinesses Inventor mm 0110 Thieme O. THIEME.

MULTIPLE ZERO ESCAPEMENT MECHANISM.

APPLlCATlON FILED JULY 11. 1912.

1 ,143,240. Patented June 15, 1915.

ISHEETSSHEET 6.

Invenlor Witnesses 0. THIEME.

MULTIPLE ZERO ESCAP EMENT MECHANISM.

7SHEETS-SHEET 7.

0 l 9 1 1 KU 1 9 n Ill .1 J d B t m t a P L 9 Y L U J D E L H .N w T A C U P P A Ewe/ital; Otto T hiane,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OTTO THIEME, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR TO MOON-HOPKINS BILLING MACHINE COMPANY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, A CORPORATION OF MISSOURI.

MULTIPLE-ZERO ESCAPEMENT MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 15, 1915.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, O'rro THIEME, a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Louis, Missouri, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Multiple-Zero Escapement Mechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a plan view showing the key board arrangement of a calculating machine provided with my improved escapement mechanism. Fig. 2 is a side elevational view partly in section illustrating the up per portion of the escapement mechanism and the manner in which it cooperates with the zero pins of the traveling carriage. Fig. 3 is a detail view of the restoring bar for the digit pins in the traveling carriage. Fig. 4 is a rear elevational view partly in section illustrating the means for restoring the zero pins in the traveling carriage. Fig. 5 is a side elevational View partly in section as seen from the right hand side of the machine. Fig. 6 is a front elevational view. Fig. 7 is a detail view of the pallets which cooperate with the escapement teeth. Fig. 8 is a detail view of the fixed pallet. Fig. 9 is a detail. view of the key operated stops which fix the position of the multiple zero mechanism. Fig. 10 is a front elevational view showing the escapement used as a single-step mechanism. Fig. 11 is a side elevational view of such single-step mechanism. Fig. 12 is a detail view of the pallets and escapement teeth employed in the single-step mechanism. Fig. 13 is a diagrammatic View of the multiple zero mechanism.

This invention relates to a new and useful improvement in escapement mechanisms for calculatin machines such as disclosed in Belgian I atent No. 202,081,. dated August 21, 1907, French Patent No. 383,719, dated January 16, 1908, and mentioned in application Serial No. 310,739, filed by Hubert Hopkins in the United States Patent Olfic'e on or about April 9, 1906, although it is obvious that my present improvement may be.

used in connection with other types of calculating machines.

The object of this present invention is to provide a simple and efiicient escapement mechanism for the laterally inovable can riages of calculating machines and one which is not susceptible to over-throw or displacement.

Another object is to provide means whereby a laterally movable carriage may be stepped leftwardly two or more spaces upon the operation of the single key by means of novel mechanism hereinafter described for the purpose of introducing two or more zeros in the machine.

In the drawings, 1 represents the base of the machine.

2 are the key bars identified with the calculating machine pivoted at 3 and on whose forward ends are heads marked with numerals from 1 to 9 inclusive. The rear ends of these key bars 2 lie under vertically movable bars 56 arranged in longitudinal rows and whose upper ends are designed to position setting up pins 63 arranged in a laterally movable carriage 57 traveling in pivoted track bars 58. When the pins 63 are positioned by the keys and the carriage stepped leftwardly, said carriage is lifted. The positioned pin 63 will raise stop pins 93 in front of shoulders 101 on the rack bars 100. As the handle of the machine, not shown, is pulled forward, the racks 100 will move under the impelling action of springs 103 connected to bars 102 having a slot and pin connection with said racks, said forward movement being permitted by the restoring bar 104. l Vhen the handle reaches its forward position, either set of accumulating Wheels 119 or 268 may be engaged with the racks 100, the rearward movement of the handle causing the bar 104 to engage the levers 102 and restore all of the racks 100 rotating the wheels 119 or 268 the dis tance proportionate to the forward movement of the racks. To take a total, the T key is depressed to engage wheels 119 with. the racks before said racks start to move forwardly, or the P key is operated to engage the wheels 268 with the racks before said racks start to move forward and upon the forward pull of the handle, the racks 100 will move forwardly until the wheels 119 or 268' reach their zero position, in which type, not shown. carried by the racks 100, are properlypositioned in the printing line to print the total. .All of these particulars" are fully described in the patent and application before referred to, to which attention is directed for a full explanation of the details .of construction and modes of operation which form no part of my present invention. As described in said patent, there is a spring, not shown in the accompanying drawings, for drawing the carriage 57 leftwardly. In said patent, the carriage 57 was provided with a rack 78 with which a segment 77 mounted on the upper end of a shaft 76 cotiperated, the

- lower end of said shaft carrying a segment 205 meshing with a rack 197 whereby the carriage was restored to its normal or right handposition either from the main shaft of the machine or by the error key 206., lemploy the same construction here, but instead of having a segmental escapem'ent wheel on the shaft 76, the pallets of which are operated by the key bars 2,1 provide aseries of escapement teeth 4 on the carriage with which coiiperates a rigid pallet 5 in the form of a bent projection on the upper end of a bar 6 and a pivoted or movable pallet 7 on the end of a lever 8 piv'otally mounted on the track bar 58 in which the traveling carriage 57 operates. The pallet lever'8 is provided witha pin 9 with which cooperates a spring 10, the lower end of said spring being connected to a plate 11 fixed to the framing of the machine, said plate also forming a bearing for the upper end of shaft 76. The bar 6 is broadened at its lower end so as to lie over all of the digit keys and also the zero key in tlie singlestep escapement, shown in Figs. 10 to 12 inclusive, so that whenever any key bar 2 is operated, the bar 6 will be raised, placing the fixed pallet 5 behind an escapement tooth, and raising the pallet 7 above the tooth which it formerly engaged, permitting the carriage to move leftwardly a short distance so that when bar 6 isdepressed to disengage the fixed'pallet from this tooth, the spring 10 will draw the movable pallet 7 in front of the next adjacent tooth, thus enabling the carriage to step leftwardly as the operating key rises. spring 12 is connected to the bar 6 to lower the same. All. of the key bars 2 are notched adjacent to the lower broadened edge-of bar 6, as shown in Fig. 11, whereby when the lower end of bar 6 is drawn forwardly by means of a rod 13, the lower edge of said bar 6 is brought into registration with said notches and hence the key bars 2 may be operated without operating the escapement. The rod 13 is intended to be connected to the D or Decimal key in said pat'ent'aforesaid and to enable the lower end of bar 6 to be thus pulled forwardly, the bracket 14, which acts as a guide therefor is made movable.

In setting up examples in a ten-key machine, according to the mechanism just above described, if it was desired to introduce an item containing a number of zeros or ciphers, say for instance$50.00, the 5-key would be first operated and then the zero key would be operated three times.

My present invention contemplates a number of multiple zero keys so that the zero setting up pins 63 in the traveling carriage may be positioned by a single key operation to set up two or more zeros according to the number desired. In the example given, the 5-key would be pressed and the three multiple zero key operated once instead of operating the one-zero key three times. With a slight modification of the parts described above and by the addition of other parts, I am able to utilize the above mechanism for multiple zero work.

Referring to Fig. 1, it will be seen that the zero'key bars l5, l5", 15"and 15" are each provided at their forward ends with heads bearing the characters 0 O 0 0 respectively. While I have illustrated the mechanism as being limited to the introduction of four zeros into the machine by a single key operation, it is obvious that five or more zeros could be introduced by a single key operation by the addition of appropriate parts. The multiplekey bars are pivoted at 3 to the base of the machine and the single zero key bar" 15 extends rearwardly and has its end located underthe zero bar 56 so as to raise the zero setting up pin 63 in the usual way. It will be noted by referring to Fig. 2 that this zero setting up pin does not have a locking shoulder at its upper end, but is provided with'a retaining projection 63 having both edges beveled so that it is unnecessary to move this pin laterally and downwardly to restore it by means of the restoring bar 68 as contemplated in said patent The zero setting up pins 63, there being one pin for each longitudinal row of setting up pins, are each provided with an elongated rearwardly extending foot 63 and as these pins are raised,'said foot portions are lift-ed above an L-shaped plate 16 secured to the rear track bar 58 so that when the carriage travels leftwardly, the zerosetting up pinswill be moved over the horizontal portion of the plate and locked in their elevated position. Each of the key bars 15', 15", 15', and 15" has its rear end. arranged under bars 56, 56, 56 and 56" respectively mounted for vertical movement similar to the bars 56 but having extensions at their upper ends whose upper faces are ofdifferent widths (see Fig. 13) which are designed to embrace one, two, three and four zero setting up pins respectively depending upon the bar operated. Should any of these bars 56', 56"" 56", 56 be operated, they will, through the bar 6, first raise the fixed escapement pawl 5 on the downward movement of the key head and lift from one to four zero setting up pins depending upon the zero key operated, and when the zero key is released themov able pallet 7 will be brought into control with the next, the second, the third, or the fourth escapement tooth so that the carriage will, after the zero setting up pin, or pins, have been raised, be stepped over from one to four spaces accordingly.

In Fig. 13, I have conventionally illustrated the different zero setting up pins to the right of the stop pins 93 which is the normal position of the carriage. It is of course obvious that any of the zero pins 63, which may be raised before the digit pin 63 is raised, will be non-significant. However, suppose that the digit pin 63, shown in Fig. 13, was raised by the operation of the 1 digit key, the carriage would be stepped leftwardly placing the raised digit pin in control of the rack in the units column. If it was now desired to place the raised digit pin 63 in control of the tens, hundreds, thousands, or ten-thousands column, and at the same time raise the 1 2 3 or 4 zero pins 63, the proper zero key would be operated requiring the depression of a single key to raise the one or more zero pins.

The means for variably or differentially spacing the carriage leftwardly consists of a lever 16 pivoted on a suitable bracket secured to the base of the machine and having one end lying over the rear ends of bars 15", 15", and 15". This lever is notched at the upper edge of that portion which extends over the bars 15", etc. for the purpose of differentially engaging stop plates 17 and 18 pivotally mounted at their lower ends to bracket extensions secured to the base 1 and provided at their upper ends with forwardly projecting portions which are de- Signed to be moved over the notched end of lever 16. Each of the key bars 15 and 15 is provided with a lateral pin 19 which opcrates in a slot in each of. the plates 17 and 18, whereby when these two key bars are op.- erated, the plate 17 or the plate 18 will be rocked forwardly over the end of lever-.16 to arrest said lever in its intended position. No stops are operated by the keys 15 or 15"" to arrest the lever 16 in its predetermined position, for the reason that when bar 15 is operated to position a single zero setting up pin, it is unnecessary to rock the lever 16, and when the bar 15 is operated, it will move the lever 16 to the full limit of its movement beyond which bounds, it, and its associated parts, can not be moved. Lever 16 is connected b a link 20 with a bell crank 21, the upwar ly extending memberof which is pivotally connected by a link 22 to the end of lever 8 which, as before described, carries the flexible escapement pallet 7. Lever 8, in the multiple zero key construction shown in.Fig. 6, is slotted at its pivoted end so that it may be moved longitudinally to place the escapement pallet toward the right the distance of two, three or four teeth, depending upon the multiple zero key which is operated. Instead of having the upper end of bar 6 engaging the pin 9 so that the pallet end of the lever 8 will merely be lifted for a single space escapement, as shown in Fig. 12, I provide a ratchet toothed member 23 on the pin 9 and provide the same with a pin 23 at its opposite or left hand end, as shown in Fig. 7, to which pin is connected the spring 10 heretofore referred to. The upper end of the bar 6, as shown in Fig. 8, is likewise provided with ratchet teeth 6" which cooperate with the ratchet teeth on the lower edge of member 23' The operation of the parts above described is as follows. When any of the multiple zero key bars 15", 15 or 15 is operated, the zero setting up pins 93 are first positioned upon the depression of the forward ends of said key bars and simultaneously the lever 16 is rocked so as to operate the bell crank 21 and through the link connection 22 to draw the lever 8 toward the right a distance of'two, three or four escapement teeth, depending upon the multiple zero key operated. hen the bar 6 rises, it will place the fixed pallet 5 in engagement with an escapement tooth and at the same time lift the movable pallet 7 above the escapement teeth and draw the lever 8 carrying said pallet 7 toward the right two, three or four spaces depending upon the throw of lever 16. When the lever 16 is arrested, or reaches the limit of its throw, depending upon the multiple zero key operated, the ratchet engagementbetween the upper end of bar 6 and pivoted member will prevent the lever 8 from moving leftwardly until the pallet 7, or the point thereof, is located in front of the escapement tooth two, three, or four steps removed. IV hen the pallet 7 has engaged its 1 proper escapement tooth, it will be arrested against further downward movement under the action of spring 10, but the bar 6 will be drawn downwardly by the spring 12 a slightly further distance until the ratchet teeth 6 have been disengaged from the ratchet teeth on member 23, when the spring connected to the laterally movable carriage will pull the same leftwardly until the end wall of the slot in the pivoted end of lever 8 will engage its pivot pin and arrest the further leftward movement of the carriage. Thus, for a single-step escapement, when bar 15 is operated, the device works substantially the same as the construction shown in Figs. 10 to 12; but when any of the bars 15", 15 or 15"" is operated, the bell crank 21 has imparted thereto a differential throw so as to position the pallet 7 two, three or four teeth removed, the ratchet toothed en gagement between the :i per end of bar 6 and the pivoted member 28 permitting the lever 8 to be drawn toward the right (Figs. 6 and 7) the requisite distance. When the bell crank 21 reaches the limit of its throw,

the ratchet engagement between the upper end of bars 6 and member 23 will maintain the proper relation between the parts, locking lever 8 against leftward movement until the fixed pallet 5 has been withdrawn and the movable pallet 7 properly positioned two or more escapement teeth removed so that the carriage will be pulled .leftwardly a corresponding number of spaces.

In the multiple key mechanism some means other than the double cam faced restoring bar 68 is necessary to restore the zero setting up pins 68 and this means, as shown in the accompanying drawings, consists of a lever 25 pivoted to a bracket secured to one of the track bars 58. The left hand end of this lever (see Fig. 6) has a is intended to engage the cam face of lever,

25 so as to rock said lever and restore all of the pins 63 which may have been positioned in the operation of the machine. It will be remembered that in the consti action disclosed in the Belgian patent before mentioned, the traveling carriage 57 has an ex cess movement to the right beyond its home positionand consequently when the carriage returns to a normal position after such excess movement, it will permit the end of lever 25 over the zero setting up pins 63 to be raised above said pins so as to permit subsequent operations thereof. In Fig. 6 I have shown the home position of the carriage and its pin 27 in full lines, the dotted line position of pin 27 indicates the limit of the excess movement of the carriage in which position the pin lies under the flat extreme end of lever 25 so as to hold the opposite end of the lever practically stationary for a short period of time while the zero setting up pins 63 are fully depressed.

I am aware of the patent to Stroh, No. 829,357, dated August 21, 1906, wherein there is disclosed a construction for setting up a plurality of stops by the operation of a single multiple zero key, but my construction diflers materially from the structure illustrated in said Stroh patent in providing a mechanism having a variable throw for controlling the position of one of the escapement pallets.

What it claim is:

1. In a machine of the character described, the combination. with digit keys and mul- ,tiple zero keys, setting up pins under con trol of said keys, and means for setting up a plurality of pins by operation of a single multiple zero key, said means including a differentially movable element and means for controlling the variable throw of said element.

2. The combination with a traveling carriage and its setting up pins, an escapement mechanism for said carriage including fixed and movable pallets, and means for setting up a plurality of pins in the carriage, said means also varying the relation of one set of pallets to the escapement mechanism whereby the carriage may be differentially advanced.

3. The combination with a traveling carriage and its setting up pins, means for advancing the carriage a distance greater than one denomination, said means including an element having a differential throw, and means for simultaneously I positioning a number of setting up pins in the carriage corresponding to the difi'erential throw of said advancing means.

4. The combination of a traveling carriage containing setting up pins in longitudinal and transverse series, and key operated means for selectively and simultaneously positioning two or more setting up pins, and escapement mechanism operated by said keys for arresting the advance movement of the carriage proportionate to the number of pins positioned.

5. The combination of a traveling carriage containing setting up pins, multiple zero keys for positioning a selected number of pins, an escapement mechanism for controlling the advance movement of said carriage, and means controlled by said multiple zero keys for displacing a pallet of said escapement mechanism whereby the carriage is permitted to advance a number of spaces corresponding to the number of pins positioned.

6. The combination of a traveling carriage containing setting up pins, and a plate over which the elevated pins pass as the carriage travels, whereby said elevated pins are locked in their raised position.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses, this sixth day of July, 1912.

OTTO THIEME.

Witnesses:

M. P. SMITH, M. A. HANDEL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each,-by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

